Rosa Luxemburg — The Fight to Shorten the Working Day
In this article, Rosa Luxemburg briefly explains the significance of the proletarian efforts to shorten the working day and the history of such struggles.
The article “The Fight to Shorten the Working Day” was written in 1894 by Rosa Luxemburg and published in “Sprawa Robotnicza” (Worker’s Cause) №8, February 1894.
The Fight to Shorten the Working Day
Until the last century, no factory industry was known at all. Craft workshops satisfied all the needs of the society. Back then, there was a fierce struggle between the foremen and the journeymen over the length of the working day. Laws specifying a normal working day were also issued. But they were completely different from what exists today and which we are striving for. The laws of that time required not to shorten, but to extend the working day. They stipulated not the maximum working time, but the shortest minimum requirement to labor in a working day.
For in those days, the situation of the workers was completely different. There were no spare workers ready to call — only qualified laborers could find work. Thus, the journeymen, united in guild unions, were a force to be reckoned with and worked for the foremen as much as they wanted. The average working day was 10 hours. So the foremen demanded laws from the government that would stipulate the rebellious workers a longer working day.
Relations, with the introduction and development of factory and machine industries, have completely changed. With the machine, the worker became a simple tool for the capitalist, and the mass of hungry competitors looking to earn a living made him a complete slave of the factory owner. Then the capitalists, for whom every moment of inactivity of the machines is a waste, began to extend the working day to 15, 16, 17, and even 20 hours!
Ever since, from the beginnings of the great factory industry, the slavery and torment of the workers has begun. But fortunately and to the credit of the workers, their fight against the inhumane exploitation begins almost with the very first appearance of this slavery — the fight to shorten the working day.
It was in England where the factory industry developed the earliest, and this is also where the first European workers’ campaign to reduce working hours took place.
As early as 1802, the English government had to pass a law restricting child labor, but for a long time it was only a formality existent on paper. It was not until circa 1830 that the powerful movement of English workers began. The government was afraid of the agitation, organization of unions and issued a law in 1834 reducing the working day to 15 hours (!), for adolescents to 12 and for children to 8.
Naturally, this did not satisfy the workers at all. They decided to strive for a working day of 10 hours for women and children. In 1838, the English proletariat set itself the goal of winning this right along with winning the right of universal suffrage in elections to the Parliament. Workers formed special unions, demonstrated on mass scales, presented the government with written demands — in order to obtain the right to 10 hours of work.
Under the pressure of this movement, in 1844 the government restricted the working day for adult women to 12 hours. It was the first law to restrict the working day of adult workers. Having received this considerable concession, the English workers fought on with increasing fervor. The “Chartist” party, which included millions of workers and fought for political freedom, aroused such fear in the government that it finally gave way in 1848. Another law was issued, which shortened the working time for women and the youth to 10 hours a day. Naturally, the work of adult men has been regulated as well, because without women and young people they can hardly work anywhere. Thus, the English proletariat achieved its goal after a struggle that lasted about half a century.
But with this, the demands of the workers grew larger. Currently, they are struggling to shorten their work to 9–8 hours a day and they have indeed achieved as much in many spheres of work. For example, London bakers, tailors, potters, weavers and spinners only work 9, at most 9 and a half hours, room painters only 8 and 3 quarters of an hour.
In Germany, big industry did not develop until circa 1840. It was then that the workers’ movement arose in order to shorten the working hours. As early as 1848, at conventions in Frankfurt and Berlin, German workers issued the slogan of a 10-hour working day. Around 1860, they began to reorganize themselves into a powerful Social-Democratic party. Under the banner of this party, they also stubbornly fought for the legal limitation of working hours. In 1869, a socialist deputy submitted a draft state law with a 10-hour working day to the Parliament. The same was done by Social-Democratic deputies in 1885 and 1891.
As a result of this workers’ agitation, the government finally limited the work of women to 11 hours a day in 1891. There is currently no general working day law in Germany. But by the excellent organizing of trade unions and strikes, the German workers won the average working day of 10 to 12 hours informally. For example, the workers work 10 hours in machine factories, chemical plants and paper mills. Many carpenters have even gained 9 and a half hours of workday, while typesetters work in some places 8 hours a day.
In France, where the factory industry developed slightly earlier than in Germany, we already see the legislative formation in 1841 — the limitation of the working time of children to 8 hours and of adolescents to 12. Due to the 1848 French revolution, which demanded universal suffrage and “the right to work,” the frightened government passed a law of 10 hours for Paris and 11 hours of daily work for the provinces to appease the proletariat. However, it did not appoint any provisions to ensure that this law was exercised. Besides, when the revolution culminated in the government crushing the proletariat, it withdrew its concession and the working hours remained unlimited.
But the French working class did not stop fighting. Around the 1860s, a mass movement — the organization of unions and strikes among the proletariat — arose, which is growing more and more. In 1871, taking advantage of the fall of Emperor Napoleon in the war with Germany [Louis Napoleon III lost the Franco-Prussian war and was imprisoned by the Germans — ed.] and the widespread confusion in the country, Parisian workers seized state power in the capital and established the famous Commune, or the workers’ government. After a few months, the bourgeoisie overthrew the Commune and crushed the labor movement for a while. But under the influence of the impressive Commune, fearing the workers’ movement, the government took up factory legislation again — this time for real.
Firstly, the work of children was then limited to 6, and the work of adolescents to 12 hours. Adult workers were not included in the law limiting the working day. But, taking advantage of the freedom of unions and strikes, French workers developed such a labor movement that they gained a significant reduction in their working day time in many places.
Finally, in 1893, the French government limited the working day for women and adolescents to 10 or 11 hours a day at most. By large, this amounts to a reduction in adult male work.
But it was the American workers who struggled first for the shortening of the working day. In New York State, as early as 1803, shipbuilding and construction workers began fighting to this end. In 1832 there was the first strike of carpenters and shipbuilders for a 10-hour working day. This strike ended in failure. But already the next year, the same workers rose again and this time they won: a 10-hour working day was implemented for them.
In the same year in Philadelphia, the workers of these professions also went on strike and won. In 1840, the workers of the government ship repair shop won a 10-hour working day. In 1845, there was a strike of 4,000 workers for a 10-hour working day in the cities of Pittsburgh and Allegheny, which yielded no results at the time.
The movement, however, did not cease; on the contrary — it intensified with each passing year. As early as 1847, one of the [US] states issued a 10-hour working day law.
In the following years, having earned 10-hour workdays for the majority of professions, American workers set themselves the goal of an 8-hour working day.
